V I T I S. 
406 
natural order of hederaceae, vites (Juss.) —Generic Cha¬ 
racter. Calyx: perianth five-toothed, very small. Corolla: 
petals five, rude, small, caducous. Stamina: filaments five, 
awl-shaped, from erect spreading, caducous. Anthers sim¬ 
ple. Pistil: germ ovate. Style none. Stigma obtuse-headed. 
Pericarp: berry globular or ovate, two-celled. Seeds two, 
bony, turbinate-cordate, contracted at the base, semibilo- 
cular. Gsertner describes the unripe berry as five-celled; the 
ripe one as one-celled and five-seeded ; but Schmidel, Haller, 
Ehrliart, &c., never could see five seeds. One or two seeds 
are often abortive.— Essential Character. Petals cohering at 
the top, shrivelling. Berry five-seeded (two-seeded) superior. 
1. Vitis vinifera, or common vine.—The common vine is 
universally known to have a thick-twisted irregular weak 
stem covered with a brown cloven bark, and having very 
long, tough, flexible branches, trailing along the ground, or 
climbing trees by means of tendrils. The leaves are lobed 
and sinuated, serrate, smooth and alternate, on long foot¬ 
stalks. The tendrils are opposite to a leaf and are attended 
by the flowers in a raceme. The flowers are whitish or her¬ 
baceous, very small and insignificant in appearance, but 
having a very agreeable smell; the petals cohering at the 
tip and concealing the genitals in manner of a veil, but soon 
falling off. Berry globular, in some varieties ovate, before it 
is ripe regularly divided into five cells; but afterwards one- 
celled, almost pellucid, coloured in some, colourless in others. 
In the middle is a short column, springing from the woody 
fibres of the pedicel of the berry; to the top of this the seeds 
are fastened by its peculiar umbilical chord: this chord is 
filiform, running along the inner side of the seed to its very 
top, then reflected to the back, and finally entering the navel. 
Seeds naturally five, but for the most part fewer: others have 
not discovered more than two. In some berries they are all 
abortive.—Native of most of the temperate parts of the world. 
The currant vine has been noticed among the varieties: it is 
not unusual to have some berries without stones in other varie¬ 
ties : and we have dried grapes frequently imported under the 
name of Sultana raisins, that are esteemed on that account. 
2. Vitis palmata, or palmate-leaved vine.—Leaves palmate, 
smooth; segments gashed; umbels racemed.—Native of 
Virginia. 
3. Vitis Indica, or Indian vine.—Leaves cordate, toothed, 
villose beneath ; tendrils racemiferous. It produces a great 
quantity of small black grapes in the lower hills of Jamaica, 
but they are of a rough taste, and would doubtless make an 
excellent red wine, if properly managed.—Native both of the 
East and West Indies, and Cochinchina. 
4. Vitis flexuosa, or Japonese vine.—Leaves cordate, 
toothed, villose beneath; stem flexuose; panicles elongated. 
—Native of Japan. 
5. Vitis labrusca, or downy-leaved vine.—Leaves cordate, 
subtrilobate, toothed, tomentose underneath.—Native of 
North America, Amboyna, Cochinchina and Japan. 
6 . Vitis vulpina, fox-grape or vine.—Leaves cordate, 
tooth-serrate, naked on both sides.—Native of Virginia. 
7. Vitis heterophylla, or various-leaved vine. — Leaves 
simple, gash-three-lobed and five-lobed, serrate, naked.— 
Native of Japan, flowering there in July and August. 
8 . Vitis laciniosa, or parsley-leaved vine.---Leaves quinate, 
leaflets multifid. There is a variety of this with red berries. 
—Supposed to grow naturally in Canada. 
9. Vitis hederacea, or ivy-leaved vine.—Leaves quinate; 
ovate, acuminate, toothed.—Native of the East Indies. 
10. Vitis heptaphylla, or finger-leaved vine.—Leaves digi¬ 
tate, septenate, ovate, quite entire.—Native of the East Indies. 
11. Vitis pinnata, or pinnate-leaved vine.—Leaves pin¬ 
nate, tooth-serrate, smooth.—Native place unknown. 
12. Vitis arborea, or pepper vine—Leaves superdecom¬ 
pound, lateral, leaflets pinnate.—Native of North America. 
Propagation and Culture. —All the sorts of grapes are 
propagated either by layers or cuttings. 
The vine is spontaneous in Carolina and all North Ame¬ 
rica, from 25° to 45° of latitude, but they do not succeed in 
making wines there in the same latitude with Spain and Italy. 
The American woods are in many parts so entangled with 
vines for many miles together, that their trailing branches are 
a great impediment in travelling, and lofty trees are over¬ 
topped and wholly covered with them 
The vine was gradually introduced into the different coun¬ 
tries of southern Europe, from the East, where we know it 
was cultivated from the time of Noah. In the age of Homer 
it grew wild in the island of Sicily, and probably in the 
adjacent continent, but it was not improved by skill, nor did 
the rude inhabitants extract a liquor from it. A thousand 
years afterwards, Italy could boast, that of the fourscore most 
generous and celebrated wines, more than two thirds were 
produced from her own soil. The blessing was soon com¬ 
municated to the Narbonnese province of Gaul; but so 
intense was the cold to the north of the Cevennes, that in the 
time of Strabo, it was thought impossible to ripen grapes in 
those parts of Gaul. This difficulty, however, was gradually 
vanquished; and there is some reason to believe, that the 
vineyards of Burgundy are as old as the age of the Antonines. 
Mr. Miller tells us, that the vineyards in some parts of 
Italy will hold good above three hundred years, and that 
vines of one hundred years old are accounted young ones. 
It would seem probable that the luxurious Romans should 
introduce the vine into Britain, during their establishment in 
the island ; and that it should have maintained its ground 
ever since, with various fortune. But there is little doubt 
that vineyards were common appendages to abbeys and mo¬ 
nasteries, which were frequently filled with monks who were 
foreigners, or had lived much in Italy, and had there con¬ 
tracted such a habit of drinking wine with their meals, that it 
appeared to be in a manner a necessary. 
From Pliny’s silence on that head, in the large account 
which he gives of the vine in his fourteenth book, we may 
conclude that Britain had it not when Pliny wrote. But 
Tacitus, writing of the times when Julius Agricola com¬ 
manded here, expressly denies us the vine. If so, it is not 
probable that we had it for many years after, since Domitian 
ordered vineyards in the provinces to be destroyed, both 
because they occasioned a scarcity of corn, and were an 
incitement to sedition by the encouragement which they gave 
to drunkenness: and from this time none could plant vine¬ 
yards without the permission of the emperors; till Probus 
who acceded in A. D. 276, rescinded the edict, towards the 
end of his reign. It is supposed, that licence was granted the 
provincials to plant vineyards about the year 280, and the 
Britanni are expressly mentioned by Vopiscus among the 
nations who partook of it. 
Bede, who finished his history A. D. 731, writes expressly, 
“ Vineas etiam quibusdam in locis germinant.” 
It is natural to suppose, that the propagation of the vine 
would be first attempted in the southern parts of our island, 
both because they are the warmest, and the nearest to Gaul. 
Accordingly the neighbourhood of Winchester was formerly 
famous for vines, as appears from the old verses cited by Mr. 
Somner; and Twyne supposes this city to have taken its 
name from hence. 
Of Canterbury and that neighbourhood the same author 
maks the abbot of St. Augustine’s say, that their house was 
formerly not destitute of vines: and Somner informs us, that 
in the year 1285, both that abbey and the priory of Canter¬ 
bury were plentifully furnished with vineyards. 
At Rochester, a large piece of ground adjoining to the city 
is now called the vine: another is so called at Sevenoke in 
Kent: this also was the name of the seat of the barons Sandes 
in Hampshire. At Hailing, near Rochester, the bishop of 
that see had formerly a vineyard; for when Edward II. in 
the nineteenth year of his reign, was at Bockinfeld, bishop 
Hamson sent him thither, as Lambarde tells us, “ a present of 
his drinkes, and withal both wine and grapes of his own 
growth in his vineyarde at Hailing.” Captain Nicholas 
Toke, of Godington, in Great Chart, in Kent, “ hath so in¬ 
dustriously and elegantly, says Philipot, cultivated and im¬ 
proved our English vines, that the wine, pressed and ex¬ 
tracted out of their grapes, seems not only to parallel, but 
almost to out-rival that of France.” 
Of Sussex, Lambarde writes, “ History doth mention, that 
there 
